Commonwealth 100km Champs

Just got back from supporting Iain and the rest of the Welsh Team at the Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Championships in Keswick. Iain had a great race in the 100k - gaining a PB of just under 7hr41min.

Iain's report is below the pictures.

Photo below: Gilbo, posibly the nicest guy in the world, helps Iain get his shoes off after the race.

Iain's Report:

Not much to say on this one. I've only ever ran one 100k and that was a flat 2k loop, this was a fairly hilly then undulating 14.5 k run out, 7 x 10k loops which comprised of flat 2 x 5k up and down Thirlmere (lake) and an undulating 15.5 k run home.

I felt the training was there, I've ran more miles, more height gain and also ran more ultras this year than ever before, my main concern was that the UTMB would show up in my legs after 40 odd K. As it happened I felt fairly strong throughout and ran all my 10k splits within 2-3 minutes of each other, averaging just over 46 mins/10k. The toes were still sore from the UTMB, nails damaged, blisters not fully healed and further aggravated from further running but they settled down and there was no real pain through the race.

We started off at a nice pace, almost all runners in the peleton and after the hill we started to run our own races. A Canadian took off pretty early on but otherwise after 15k we were still quite close. On the flat of the lakeside we all settled into our paces and started to spread out. I had a rough race plan of run 45 minute 10k's to the half way and see how it went. I'd lost 20 minutes in the second half of the Galway race so thought starting any quicker would be silly, if I could lose less time I'd run a PB. I hit the marathon in around 3:10, the half way mark in just over 3:45 and was still feeling OK. I settled in with Paul Hart, and one of the Aussie's and we started to move through the field quite nicely, ticking off the 10k's. Apart from a brief panic when I started to get de-hydrated I think it was about the best executed ultra I've been through. Every 5 k Arwel, Sharon and Anne at one end, and Sarah and Dic at the other, gave me flat coke, rice crispy cakes, pancakes, turkish delight, cliff shots (carbs/electrolytes and caffeine) or blocks of marzipan (nearly half a kilo..) and I drunk nuun or straight water. - oh and the old ibuprofen, I was chewing through that by 80k.

After 60k's or so I seemed to have dropped to 4:45 min/km, 15 seconds of the earlier pace, but this still left me on line for a PB. I knew if I never ran a 10k split in 50+ mins I'd run a PB.

I was a bit blasse about the run in, in my mind I'd run past Sarah and Dic, grab some food, then run 10 miles back to Keswick and go for a beer..in reality 10 miles after 52 miles isn't so easy. Thankfully all the Welsh squad came out here and the support was superb, from runners, their families and even random people on the street. The first 5 k went pretty quick but by 90 I was pretty much finished, seeing the back of and then passing a Scottish runner lifted me but then the first lady past me and I struggled to latch onto her and she soon drifted off. Dic's experience told here, he followed me in the car, parking it half way up all the hills making sure I never stopped to walk and then tried to keep me thinking about taking racing lines and working hard. Anna, one of the Welsh runners was out on her bike around this section and her encouragement and humour certainly helped. At 95 k I toiled up the last hill and was then able to kick in for the last run in, finally throwing away the last bit of marzipan and re-passing the aussie lady with a km to go.

That beer at the end never happened. I didn't eat immediately after the race and I think my blood sugar crashed and Sarah spent all night trying to force feed me bacon and pesto pasta and pringles. She even got beer thinking that may tempt me up, in the end only Match of the Day late that night got me to my feet.

Before the race I'd set my mind on 7:42 for some mundane reason, so I was happy with 7:40:50. TBH in such a small strong field I started off with the real fear of coming last. It's quite rare to see a 100k race where almost all the field run sub 8 like this, and only one runner ran over 8:30. A great event. The atmosphere in the Welsh camp was superb and the banter and relaxed atmosphere was a real factor in us all running well. To be involved in such a cracking race was a great experience as it was to watch such a classic battle for the win go on between 2 English runners Jez Bragg and Matt Giles, with Jez finally catching Matt with around 5 k to go to win by 90 seconds in 7:03.

100k no gut issues, deffo a record for me..

Cracking weekend and well done to John Pares who ran 151 miles in 24 hrs around a 1 km track to win Bronze for Wales, our only medal, a class run.